


What Did It Cost?

by xPhoenix



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Character Death, Gen, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems, the infinity stones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-07 00:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15206909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xPhoenix/pseuds/xPhoenix
Summary: "What did it cost?""Everything."Infinity Stones aren't free. Each one cost... something.





	1. The Power Stone - Xandar

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> I've had this idea since I first saw Infinity War, and I finally decided to write it.
> 
> Enjoy!

Xandar is a beautiful place.

Well, at least it used to be.

Now, it was a horrific landscape scattered with small fires left behind from the assault. The most noticeable damage was dealt to the vault. Its intimidating pillars lay shattered in the dust, and the timeless murals that once decorated the walls rested forgotten in the rubble, covered in the blood and bodies of fallen soldiers.

All of this just because the Mad Titan craved power, and Xandar happened to lay in his way.

The last survivor of the Battle of Xandar finally gave in to his wounds and knelt on the ashes with his fallen comrades.


	2. The Space Stone - Loki

Loki held the Tesseract out to Thanos, sweat dripping down his forehead.

How had he sunk so low? He was offering the Mad Titan exactly what he wanted.

———

So many Asgardians had already died under Hela’s reign. Now, all of them were about to die except for the lucky few who had escaped with Valkyrie. Loki watched in resignation as Heimdall was killed. He could only hope that the Hulk would be able to do something, to tell someone about the situation.

Then, of course, Thanos went after his… brother, and Loki couldn’t let Thor go through what he had, so here he was, handing over an Infinity Stone to his worst enemy.


	3. The Reality Stone - The Collector

From the moment the Reality Stone landed in his hands, the Collector knew he was well and truly fucked. He had heard all of the rumors, of course, about the deranged titan who sought the stone. He knew that when, not if, said titan came for him, there would be nothing he could do to stop him.

He knew all this, yet he still accepted the stone when the Asgardians offered it to him. It wasn’t like he had any other options! There was nowhere else the stone could be safer, nowhere else where it might be kept safe from petty villains until Thanos came for it.

So when Thanos came, the Collector handed over the stone, and accepted his death with a grim smile.


	4. The Soul Stone - Gamora

The moment Gamora found out the price of the Soul Stone, she was relieved. It was out of Thanos’ reach, the world was safe from his plan, the snap would never happen. And then, he started crying.

Crying.

That was surprising. Gamora had never seen Thanos cry, or show any kind of emotion at all, but here he was, crying over what? The failure of his twisted plans? It seemed fitting that his one expression of emotion was because he _couldn't_ kill half the universe.

Then, suddenly, it clicked. But at that point, it was too late. Thanos had already thrown her over the edge.

She stared at him until her body hit the ground.


	5. The Time Stone - Stephen Strange

Stephen Strange had sworn an oath to protect the Time Stone.

He had told Tony Stark that he would protect the Time Stone before protecting his life.

So why was he handing it over to Thanos?

When he had looked into the future, what he saw was… shocking. The odds of them winning were impossibly slight. But, no matter how much it pained him to admit, the odds were slightly better if he handed over the stone to Thanos. So no matter how much it hurt him to go against everything he stood for, Stephen knew that it was the only way.

If things didn’t work out, all of civilization would collapse, so all he could do was hold onto hope that he was making the right decision and do everything he could to guide the world towards the one path towards defeating Thanos.


	6. The Mind Stone - Vision

Wanda hated this.

She hated the pressure, she hated the situation, she hated the fact that she was _killing her fucking boyfriend_. She was beyond angry at everyone and everything, because she was _killing her boyfriend_ , the one person who actually loved her, the one person she could actually wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

Vision was looking her in the eyes in his final moments, looking her in the eyes as she killed him, and there was nothing but love in this eyes. She hated it.

“Wanda,” he whispered to her. His eyes were full of more emotion than she had ever seen him express.

She gathered up the last of her strength and destroyed the Mind Stone.


	7. Epilogue - Everything

Everyone lost someone in the snap. Everyone. No matter what far corner of the universe they were from, everyone lost someone.

Some people lost everything.

Rocket hadn’t even had the opportunity to die with his friends like they had dreamed of a long, long time ago, back when they first saved Xandar from the Power Stone. They had been so naive back then, they had no idea what the hell they were dealing with. Now, he wished he had never even heard of the Infinity Stones.

When Nebula came back from Titan alone, they sat in silence for a while, quietly, in mutual understanding. Eventually, they left Terra to return to flying around the galaxy, completing whatever jobs people offered them in the wake of the Snap.

Nothing was the same as before. They couldn’t enjoy their work, not when the others were gone. That’s why, when Thor came looking for them a year later, they were both quick to drop everything and join him as soon as he mentioned revenge.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
